Jupiter's Pidcock: Powerful bull markets are born in difficult times

Powering on like it's 1982

The bull market of 1982-1987 was the first I lived through. This sweet bull market, when the Dow Jones delivered 337% from mid-August 1982 to late August 1987, has been compared to that of the 1920s, which occurred in the decade following WWI and the Spanish flu.

In mid-1982 few people were feeling optimistic. Those of us around at the time will vividly remember the very real threat of nuclear war. The US and many other economies were still in recession. The US recession of July 1981-November 1982 (the end coincided, coincidently, exactly with the death of the USSR's Leonid Brezhnev) was a bad one, with unemployment rising to above 10%. Triple Point's Rose: Two 'solid' areas for income during challenging times In the UK, unemployment hit three million in January of 1982 - about 12.5% of the workforce - and stayed above that number until 198...